Government Heads Toward Shutdown

The U.S. Capitol was seen under dark clouds in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2013.
Associated Press

By

Janet Hook and

Kristina Peterson

Updated Sept. 30, 2013 5:16 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—The nation braced for a partial shutdown of the federal government, as time for Congress to pass a budget before a Monday midnight deadline grew perilously short and lawmakers gave no signs Sunday they were moving toward a resolution.

Leaders of both parties said they wanted to avoid the first federal closure since 1996, but their public appearances seemed aimed more at affixing blame for the impasse.

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) urged Senate leaders to pass legislation that the Republican-controlled House had approved early Sunday morning, which would fund the government through mid-December. But that prospect was remote, as the House legislation included a one-year delay of the new federal health law that Democrats have vowed to reject, as well as a repeal of the new law's tax on medical devices.

Government workers brace for another potential shutdown, with the possibility of no back-pay, while Americans are wondering if they'll get their mail. Laura Meckler joins the News Hub with what to expect when you're expecting a government shutdown. (Photo: AP)

Democrats say Mr. Boehner himself could end the stalemate quickly by asking the House to pass the Senate plan for extending federal funding, which includes no provisions aimed at the health law.

Such a move would anger conservatives in Mr. Boehner's ranks and likely materialize only at the last minute, after keeping up the fight against the health law to the end. But it would bring relief to the many Republicans who fear that the public would hand their party the largest share of blame for a shutdown.

The tense maneuvering surrounded a bill that otherwise might be uncontroversial: an extension of current funding for the government for the early months of the new fiscal year, which begins Tuesday. But a determined faction of conservative Republicans has argued that the deadline gives the party its best opportunity for derailing the new health law before one of its central elements, health-insurance marketplaces for individuals, are launched Tuesday.

Some Republicans held out hope that the prospect of a government shutdown would pressure Senate Democrats to make even a symbolic concession to their demand for changes in the Affordable Care Act, perhaps by agreeing to the repeal of the medical-device tax intended to help fund the law.

"We will not shut the government down," said House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), speaking Sunday on Fox News. "If we have to negotiate a little longer, we will continue to negotiate."

But other Republicans are troubled that their party's most conservative flank is forcing the confrontation to the brink in their attempt to delay or defund President Barack Obama's prized legislative accomplishment.

"We're pretty much out of options at this point,'' said Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), criticizing the faction of the party most unwilling to compromise. "They're all giddy about it. You know who benefits the most here from a shutdown? The Democrats benefit and they know that."

A shutdown would prompt federal agencies to suspend a large range of activities and furlough at least 825,000 of the U.S. government's more than two million workers, according to plans filed with the White House. However, much of the public would be unaffected, as services deemed essential would continue, among them those related to national security, mail delivery, air traffic and law enforcement.

With federal agencies preparing for furloughs, Congress remained in recess Sunday after the House in the early morning hours passed its short-term funding bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) opted to keep the Senate in recess until Monday afternoon, in a hardball strategy aimed at pressuring House Republicans to abandon attempts to use the moment to scale back the health law.

Mr. Boehner denounced the Senate for refusing to reconvene Sunday, calling it an act of "breathtaking arrogance."

In response, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Mr. Boehner's strategy was "merely a subterfuge to lift the blame from his shoulders.''

White House officials met Saturday and Sunday to talk about the possible government shutdown and other matters. A senior administration official said no back-channel discussions were under way with congressional Republicans.

The official said Mr. Obama was willing to negotiate a broad budget agreement with the GOP, but would reject "paying a toll'' in the form of policy concessions as part of a short-term funding measure.

The stalemate was a monument to problems that have increasingly gripped U.S. politics, especially over the last three years of divided government. The growing polarization of the parties, a diminished willingness to compromise on spending and an epidemic of brinkmanship have made it more difficult for Congress to address even the most routine budgeting questions.

Mr. Obama and other Democrats have said that agreeing to GOP demands now would invite Republicans to press for more in the future, with each fiscal deadline. Next up is a battle over terms for raising the nation's borrowing limit, which the Treasury says must be approved by mid-October. Most economists predict that the financial consequences of failing to raise the debt limit would be greater than a government shutdown.

The endgame of the shutdown battle will begin Monday afternoon, when the Senate is expected to reconvene roughly 10 hours before the midnight deadline. The Senate is expected to take up the House bill to continue government spending through Dec. 15 and strip out GOP amendments to delay the health-care law for a year and repeal its new tax on medical devices. That would put the ball back in the House's court.

The simplest path to avoiding a shutdown would be for the House to immediately pass the Senate funding bill and send it to the White House. Mr. Nunes and others predict that there would be enough votes to pass such a bill, if brought up by GOP leaders, with Democrats joined by some Republicans willing to postpone the health-care fight in the interest of ending the showdown.

However, that route could pose political risks to Mr. Boehner, whose standing as speaker rests on retaining his party's support, including from a conservative wing that often has clamored for him to be more combative in fighting Mr. Obama's policies.

Rep. Matt Salmon (R., Ariz.) said Mr. Boehner's status among House Republicans could suffer if he forced a pared-down spending bill through the House. "There are too many people who campaigned on this issue, to do everything they could to get rid of this bad law or postpone it," Mr. Salmon said.

Others said Mr. Boehner could bring the Senate bill to a vote at the last minute, late enough to show he had fought for Republican priorities to the end. Mr. Boehner played a similar hand early this year when he crafted and voted for a compromise with Democrats to avoid the "fiscal cliff'' of impending tax increases.

GOP officials say another option being considered by Mr. Boehner is to bring the spending bill back to the floor with yet another amendment that might allow Republican lawmakers to claim they achieved something in the battle.

One possibility is an amendment to limit federal contributions to offset the costs of health-care premiums paid by lawmakers and their staffs. Because lawmakers and aides will be required under the new health law to obtain coverage through exchanges designed for people without insurance, their costs will increase dramatically without the U.S. contribution.

Limiting the federal contribution is privately opposed by many lawmakers. But it is considered a potential 11th hour move, because it would put the Senate in the position of defending a policy that benefits lawmakers themselves.

@Lena Mora; First, I want to thank your son for his service to our country, this from an E-5 (SSgt, former USAF active duty). When I was active duty, we ALSO had our share of 'not knowing ifs', but at least at those times PARTS of the budget WERE in force, ie the DOD budget. This time the NDAA has NOT been cleared through both houses of Congress, thus for all intense and purposes, there is NO budget. NOT EVEN A 'CR' to continue to fund the DOD. The 'next' pay cycle on the DOD calender is 15 OCT. I hope that this 'squabbling' between the 'SO CALLED GROWN-UPS' in Congress will have ended by THEN .....

The “SHUTDOWN” is in any capacity for reason by a rump parliament of self-empowered House Republicans that think with what they consider to be crash-proof dummy heads, and in this Forest Gump’s mother had it right: “STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!”

The House Republicans do not have a leg to stand on and they are about to shoot themselves in to other foot. Any applause they get will be one hand clapping and the other a shaking fist in anger over the nihilistic mess Republicans have created. And where will they hide out as the impact of their obstinate stupidity hits folks back home and away---it will not be in Washington where things go to hell the fastest for the moistest.

As for “Obamacare,” if this fiasco is allowed to go to too full boil of turmoil, the president will determine that since the government isn’t paying its bills people in need of health coverage cannot be expected to pay for it and there exists a national emergency and as commander in chief he will expend a large chunk of the defense budge to protectively cover the vital health care of the American people. Then, if Republicans are silly enough to start yelling “impeachment.” it will be the pack of them that will need to be on the run.

Is any or all of the above likely? When a nation is shaken to its roots, it is impossible to know where and onto whom the pieces fall, but the French Reign, and the likes that have historically played out before and after, well demonstrates that the blade comes down on the neck of those that were willing to chance the rumble.

The Las Vegas odds for Republicans getting out of this will be slim to none---with “none” the sure bet. It is hard to believe that anyone, even this not too bright rump parliament in the House, is going to risk all of their marbles, unless they have lost their marbles---therein lies their zero-sum game.

So far I've seen a lot of heat and not much light on this subject. What little I have gleaned from mainstream AM radio the last few days seems to indicate that everyone will not have the rug pulled out from him/her/it immediately. The federal prisons will be the last to go and a lasting image from WWII (I'm old enough to remember it) was the cone-shaped pile of bodies in one of the "Work Brings Freedom" gas chambers of Auschwitz as the targets of delousing scrambled over one another to stay above the lethal cloud of Zykon B as it landed on the floor and worked its way to the ceiling.

As I understand it, Natinal Park Service employees will be among the first to be laid-off, and it will take an Act of Congress for them to collect back pay if and when they go back to work.

Power of the Purse-strings centered in the hands of Congress (AKA the legislature, City Council or whatever name the law-making and directly-elected representative body is called) is essential to our system of constitutional democracy, and "revolution through evolution" and piecemeal, incremental change (the British model) in contrast to "evolution through revolution" (the French model) is what Edmund Burke stressed as also central to our way of doing things when he wrote his masterpiece of political theory, "Reflections on the Revolution in France."

I think everyone can agree that radical changes are needed if this system is to survive at all. On the one hand, government already costs too much and we can't keep borrowing money to keep things running when we already are paying too much to service the debt we already have. On the other hand, healthcare in this country is a global disgrace compared to almost every other comparable society on the face of this planet.

It is going to take a long time to fix the current healtcare system but we have to start somewhere and that is what the Affordable Healthcare Act is doing.

Americans are not much different now compared to what we were like in the Great Depression and World War Two, nor compared to the way we handled things from the very beginnings of our existence.

Speaking for myself, I want to set up a 502c tax exempt nonprofit whose only justification for existence is reducing the cost of government by two dollars for every dollar its own income is exempted from taxation.

Wish me luck people, I'm going to get started just as soon as I figure out how to get my kids and grandkids registered for Obamacare

This is a budget bill and no one is talking abut the government continuing to spend more than it is taking in. Obama sees no problem in spending and borrowing more because it will be someone elses problem down the road. Congress is only worried about getting re-elected and the supreme court just worries about what people think of them and we claim to be the most respected country in the world. Maybe Putin is right. We are not exceptional.

For those who are tired of hearing old men, like Harry Reid, politicize birth control pills (as he did again this week-end)... take heart! Once Obama Care is passed, politicians can finally diversify and add x-rays, antibiotics, colonoscopies, ear flushing and so much more to the mud they sling at each other ... I can hear it now..."Republican terrorists are determined to keep hard working Americans from getting moles removed!"..."Tea Party arsonists want to blow up little Johnny's access to Ritalin!" Yeah, we really are only hours away from the "fundamental transformation" of every future election, political ad, televised debate...

Oh, how good the sound of doing away with the "tyranny of massive and intrusive" government. Yep, just that easy, like all pipedreams.

Get rid of all of those useless governmental employees and watch your retirement savings invested in the stock market go down the tubes as unemployment increases by millions.

To make drastic reductions to Medicaid you will have to go after one of the biggest cost drivers which is long term care for the elderly. and watch your retirement savings evaporate as you come up with the $50k-$75k a year it will cost you to take care of Mom. You will become your own "death panel" when your savings run out.

Let's do away with FEMA. Helping people rebuild after ever increasing natural disasters is a tyranny that should be abolished.

Try cutting the military budget and throw even more people out of work and try dealing with the backlash of the neocons.

Do away with research programs which lead to things like the internet which spawned the technologies that now drive our economy.

Stop re-paving of interstate highways until they become so deteriorated that nothing moves.

Don't regulate business because then we can return to the golden days of the robber barons.

Let anyone and everyone own guns because then we will all be the "good guy with the gun."

Stop funding schools because only those who can afford to send their children to a school with resources will unleash a re-birth of freedom and prosperity.

I am not saying that reforms and some reasonable cutbacks should not be made, but the sloganeering of "Bring on the government shutdown!" and "Do away with the tyranny of government!" is a useless pipedream.

Dems: We want to PREOTECT the poor.GOP: We too, we´ll PROTECT them from being middle class.Dems: We want to take CARE of the elderly.GOP: We too, we´ll take CARE not to spend money on them.Dems: We are in FAVOR of white people.GOP: We FAVOR them too...but hum...how do we do it?Dems: Call Rush, GOP: But he does nothing!Dems: Good start GOPs!

Please - those who have a conscious in our government - stand up for what is right and STAND FIRM!! Do not listen to those who want to sway you -- EVEN IF YOU ARE THE MINORITY!! Does anyone do what is right for the American people at this point? -- I see but a few who will do this [in spite of the political atmosphere] -- and I say - THANKYOU!! This government of ours have sold us out and use us to do their bidding and to promote their politics and WE ARE TIRED OF IT!!

As you can see by the amount of employees - - about ''2 million'' workers - not to say how many Departments there are -- not to say how much our government now owns of the US --- HOW BIG IS OUR GOVERNMENT ? You tell me --- it is too large and too much of a club now -- as we can see by those who think they are above us by their exemptions for the policies they put on us to their total disregard and arrogance to us . THIS IS APPALLING !!

SHUT IT DOWN!

SHUT IT DOWN!

Then the American people can get on with our lives and live it peace -- until this government gets back to where they are supposed to be by following our great constitution and protecting our declaration of INDEPENDENCE --- THEN KEEP IT SHUT DOWN!!!

Let's all go down to DC, nonviolently escort the 535 slackers out of the Capitol, tell whatshisname in the White House to take a long vacation, and be the government ourselves. You know, like in the old days, oh, 237 years ago (no guns, though. Just BIG crowds.)

A shut down does not effect any Congressman or Senators pay, not one cent.

Being self employed, I get choose when I work, how hard I work and for whom I work but I do not controll when or if I receive pay.

So my decision making is partially governed by my ability to support my family, our needs and the bills. To this means I provide a customer first service,based on ethical business practice driven by responsible employees with a great work ethic, where the outcome is hopefully I receive a paycheck when all else is satisfied. Yeah, if I do not produce , I do not get paid..... self employed....

Maybe the pay for results system I work in should be applied in Congress?

I think the WSJ is beginning to look really silly with its choice of photographs that accompany its articles. Does everything boil down to sales and sentiment?

Have we no place to go where we can simply read, or hear, the news absence the sales and sentiment-inducing tactics?

Have we deteriorated as a nation so much that we have become an immature, unprofessional, and illogical group of citizens incapable of logic and rational choice that the only way to appeal to our interest is to induce emotion with sales behaviors like those that show in the WSJ’s choices of photography to accompany its articles?

the shut down occurred under Bush, when we had the economic tragedy. Under Obama, there has been a steady recovery, better than any other recovery from a similar type of economic collapse. You must really be upset at Bush and be thanking Obama.

what have they done to build us up? well, during Bush's time, we have one of the worst economic crises of all time. Under Obama and Reid's time, we have steadily recovered, the stock market is at an all time high, the economy is growing instead of drastically contracting, it is the best recovery in history from comparable economic crisis. I expect now that you are informed, you will be congratulating obama and reid.

@ John: Quite the apocalypse you've painted! Don't worry, I've seen this movie...here is how it ends:

This is a scripted "crisis" engineered by both parties for political consumption (why else would Harry Reid not even recall the Senate...oh the drama!) When the shutdown happens, about 40% of the federal workforce will stay home for a day or two and then be recalled to (gasp) find that they really weren't missed by anyone.

Essential services will continue and by October 3rd or 4th, we will have Senators rush to microphones to announce a "deal" that saves the nation. There will be a "Gang of (you fill in the #)" that meet to hammer out a bipartisan solution and everyone will declare victory. There...now I've ruined the ending for you.

The larger problem will go unresolved. We have runaway government growth and spending. We have a political class that has more politicians than statesmen and no one will make the hard choices needed to strengthen America. Social Security and Medicare are massive unfunded liabilities that rely on continued infusion of tax dollars to pay current beneficiaries...there is no "surplus" in the bank.

Adding Obamacare to the pile will only deepen the hole we have dug. Liberals are always screaming about fairness. Here's a thought, if Ocare becomes the law of the land, there should be no exemptions or delays. Anything less wouldn't be fair.

So the senate "opens for business" today at 2.....2PM...That's TWO O'CLOCK.... in the afternoon...after lunch. Note to every "hard working American" who is fighting (or already fought) the traffic to get to work early this morning... we have just injected this "virus" into our health care system.

Wow, incisive commentary from the land od denial. Glad we are dominating your thoughts. It shows that you can be taken off life support because although you may be severely brain damaged there is some brain wave activity.

Mr. Plushnick -- so sad of you with your name calling !! People [ not tea party -- this is your term and many others term] are standing up for what is right and fighting for it -- this is how it works in our government . Yes Charles -- there are other opinions than yours and should be respected as I respect yours -- the question is what do you believe?? --- I think everyone knows how the ''tea party '' people believe and it is not some viscous group that wants its way through violence but we are allowed and prompted - by the constitution -- to petition our government -- so that this government will always be checked and not allowed to grow too big --- OF WHICH IT HAS --- and we [ the little people] are just trying to diffuse this situation!!

Go to Real Clear Politics, which aggregates stories from across the political spectrum. I find it instructive to read conservative-sounding titles published in reputable papers with a liberal editorial tilt, like the Times and Post, as well as liberal-sounding titles in publications that tend to be conservative, but reputable. RCP also aggregates polls.

As for the Journal---it has indeed fallen a long way since Murdoch bought it.

Julie...you've made me tear up! Have you got some free government Kleenex I could have?

The biggest things government could do to support medical research are:

1. Tort reform so the lawyers can't sue any new medical product into unprofitability. Do you wonder why we don't have more vaccines? Here's a news flash...every medical product has side effects and bad outcomes for some people. Lawyers live for new products! I can't watch TV for 5 minutes before I see the "Law Offices of ..." soliciting for plaintiffs against a medical product (and we will sue your doctor at no cost to you also!)

What garbage. Spouting rhetoric does not address the fundamental issue that the government should not be spending money on things outside is "core" enumerated, limited, areas of authority. If we were flush with cash, carried no debt and were not adversely impacting the economy by sucking out liquidity with over taxation your stupid health care interference to assure the "brighter, safer and healthier" future of that child might be possible. But those aren't the facts are they?

Please consider using "listen and consider" instead of "respect" regarding ill informed views of others. Once I've listened and considered their views I decide whether to respect it: that's different from respecting that they can actually verbalize rhetoric.

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